UnlivedPhalanx's Blog Posts

Roy S. Khan said it best:

This is a moment of belief
This is a moment made of dreams
You found me here today,
On the coldest winter night.
This moment is our right.

God Bless the United States.

This post relates to: Turok

I saw this game for $19.99 at a bargain bin at my local Best Buy here in San Antonio and I had wanted to try this game out for a while, but not for full price. After playing for about 2 hours, I have some initial impressions about exactly how this game is gonna turn out:

+Plus+
+The game starts off almost exactly like Halo's first level after the initial cut scene. I don't know how to describe it, but it just felt exactly like that opening level where you as Masta Cheef rush to get to the bridge, it was kind of like that but in reverse because you were trying to get out of the ship.
+ Fighting Dinosours is really awesome at first, but then becomes a huge chore.
+ You run faster with a knife.
+ Unreal Engine makes things purdy.

--Minus--
-Knife beats EVERYTHING! One hit kills for everything that I've seen so far in the game.
-Bow is NOT a stealth weapon.
-AI is useless for friendlies.
-Frustrating checkpoint system makes mistakes a big deal.
-You learn all of the above the hard way

This post relates to: Wario Land: Shake It!

Wario: Shake Style!

Wario Land: Shake It!

At A Glance Score: 3 / 5 Stars

Wario Land: Shake It! is perhaps one of the best 2D platformers I have played recently. It's slick cartoony coat of paint gives it an excellent aesthetic to an otherwise played genre. The game isn't without its fair share of problems, but is a definate buy if you can find it at a discount.

The Good

+ Awesome Animation / Graphics - feels like playing a cartoon.
+ Fun Level Design.
+ Shake Controls make this game really fun to play! Honestly this game really benefits from the controls.
+ Missions and Loot add to replay value.

The Bad

+ Merfle Noises are annoying
+ Feels half-done, only 4-5 hours worth of play.
+ Game feels like a chore after a while, same objective on every single map. Go to Merfle, rush back to start of level.
+ ZERO incentive to do any of the missions or collect any of the loot, ruins the point of having those in the game.

This post relates to: Rock Band 2

While it may be little surprise to people like Dark_Spartan796 or anyone else that shares my same love of impeccable music (read: excellent melodic metal) but it may surprise you that I have fallen in love. I was reading, right here on Giant Bomb, about Harmonix giving us details on the new content for Rock Band 2 via the code on the booklet when you purchased the game. I too have been wondering when we were going to get those 20 free tracks... now we know.

November 4th, I think, "Ok, that's a few days before Gears, what good timing." So I'm scrolling down the list of tracks until I hit the bottom: "X Japan" I was thinking "that's an odd band name, but it's definitely Japanese, not just someone calling themselves Japan." Jeff posted a link to the video of this group (see embedded) and I instantly fell in love with the sound of this group. I was just simply grabbed by this group. First of all, the singer is really good. I live in Texas and as a result I hear a lot of singing (it doesn't help that I judge by genius singers like Roy Khan and Russell Allen) and I know the good immediately. WOW. I wished they didn't use the effects on the voice for most of the song but... no complaints with the rest!

Folks it happened, I just bought music from game-to-marketplace convergence. Scary times.
Embedded below is the YouTube video, for comparison see my two other favorite Japanese singers: Megumi Hayashibara and Masami Okui.

This post relates to: Halo 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Halo 3: ODST